Review: Glade Valley Golf Club

Spring has thus far not been too kind to the Northeast. For the second year in a row, the average temperature in February has actually been warmer than the average for March, a combination of unusually warm weather in February and unusually cold weather in March. And for the second year in a row, the biggest snowstorm of the year took place well into March. So golf has been tough to come by, but I have managed to play some, something I was honestly a little concerned about. The "one golf course review a month" streak can continue.

However, don't hold your breath for anything spectacular this month. I wouldn't play a good golf course at the end of March. And Glade Valley is not a particularly good golf course. Now, you may remember I mentioned Glade Valley when I talked about all the new courses I played last year. The key phrase from that little paragraph is "thoroughly average." And that's a phrase I'll stick with. Glade Valley is a very average golf course. But it is close to home, very cheap to play, and I did want to get back there so I could take some pictures and do a review anyway, so this seemed as good a time as any to play it.

Glade Valley does get off to a fairly okay start. The first hole and second holes are very similar in length, but play in opposite directions, and have some decent challenge to them. The first hole doglegs slightly to the right around a group of three fairway bunkers to a green guarded by three more bunkers. The second hole is basically straight, but the drive is best hit down the right side of the fairway. This gives you a better angle at the green, which is guarded short-left by a small pond. Yes, this golf course does feature several small ponds, which I am not a big fan of. The one on the second hole isn't too bad, but we'll get to a worse one in a little while. The greens at Glade Valley are in general not too terribly interesting, but compared with the rest of the golf course, I'd call them above-average. They're a little on the small side, but they have some decent contour to them.

The first green.

The second from the tee.

The second green. It's not a very impressive water hazard.

The third hole is the first par 3 at Glade Valley, and at 184 yards, is actually the longest par 3 on the course. It has a very wide and shallow green, much of which is behind a hazard. It's not water, more a pit with native grasses inside. The difficulty of the hole would obviously vary based on where the flag is located. It was on the left the day I played, which is clearly the nicest place it could be.

The third hole.

The next three holes are pretty bland. Two par 4s of about the same length, and then the first par 5 at the sixth. All three are essentially straight and run parallel to each other. This is a very forgettable stretch of holes, so we'll just skip over them. But I'll give you some pictures just to give you an idea of what they're about.

The fourth hole from the fairway.

The approach to the fifth green.

The sixth hole, a par 5

The seventh hole is a shortish par 4, and it's where things get sort of interesting again. Unfortunately, it's interesting in a bad way. The tee shot is blind, which is fine. I'm perfectly okay with blind shots. It's the second that lets things down. The green is surrounded by a pond on three sides, which is annoying, and if your ball goes over the green by a little bit, it will roll down into the water, because there's almost nothing but pine straw back there. It's very unforgiving, and really out of place at a golf course like this.

The tee shot on 7 is fine.

The seventh green is not fine.

The eighth hole is a little par 3 with a bunker in front and behind. Pretty simple hole. The ninth is a short par 5 that doglegs pretty significantly to the left, which is a nice change of pace for this golf course. Long hitters can cut the corner and leave themselves a shorter shot to the green. Lay-up shots have to contend with a fairway bunker, so it's almost better to go for the green even if you're further back. I wish the green didn't have a front bunker, but that's the way it goes sometimes. It's still not too bad a hole.

The eighth hole.

The ninth hole.

The back nine starts with a dull and difficult stretch. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth holes run parallel to each other, and the tenth and twelfth are fairly long par 4s. The tenth and eleventh (a par 5), have water in play near the greens. This course does this a fair number of times, putting ponds next to greens, and I am not a fan of that.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole.

The eleventh green. It's very exposed, and this was probably the windiest portion of the round.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is a par 3, with a pond next to the green (how original). Strangely, the fourteenth hole also has a pond next to the green, but it's also the most interesting hole on the course. Not in a bad way like the seventh, at least not exactly. It's just weird. It's very short, easily drivable, but you'd have to be crazy to try. The hole doglegs a bit to the right, and there are trees in the inside of the dogleg, so you'd need to hit a fade. That's fine, but your drive would have to flirt dangerously with yet another pond (thankfully the last one), and somehow find a green which is both ridiculously narrow and flanked by the pond left and trees right. So while you could go for the green, I really, really wouldn't recommend it.

The thirteenth hole.

The fourteenth green. It's 15 yards wide at most.

After another straightforward par 3, we get to the sixteenth hole. It's a long par 5 (the longest on the course), and played straight into the wind the day I played. Another sign of bad design, three of the four par 5s on the course play in the same direction. It's not the greatest feeling when you step up to a potential birdie opportunity and you're slapped with strong wind blowing in your face. Anyway, the hole is once again, not particularly interesting, but I think the bunkering at least looks halfway decent.

The fifteenth hole.

The sixteenth green.

The course closes with a pair of long par 4s. The seventeenth is actually fairly strategic, in that the green is best approached from the right, but there's a bunker and O.B. on that side of the fairway. It's not too bad a hole. The eighteenth is kind of just a long, difficult par 4, but at least there's no pond next to the green.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole.

The eighteenth green.

So, Glade Valley. It's not a particularly good golf course, but it is maintained very well considering the price, and it's a very easy walk. After 2 PM you can get a round here for something like $17, which is extremely good value. And I'm sure the place does a lot of business. I think it's actually a decent strategy, don't charge too much, and get all the casual golfers in. Just be prepared for a very slow round, it took almost exactly 5 hours to get around, and it was starting to get kind of cold by the end. It's a good place to warm up your game in the spring, to play on an unusually warm winter day, or if you want to hang out with friends, but I wouldn't play there any other time. It's the epitome of an average golf course, nothing special, nothing really interesting, just 18 holes of golf.